Home health aide accused of stealing more than $22,000 from the late Richard Donahue

LOWELL -- The late Richard Donhaue once worked as chief aide to President John F. Kennedy, but in the months before Donahue's death his home-health aide allegedly took advantage of his failing health, forging a dozen checks and stealing $22,500 in cash.

In Lowell District Court on Wednesday, Mary C. Bowers, 46, of 420 Merrill Lane, Apt. 4, Dracut, was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty to larceny over $250 by single scheme, uttering a false check (12 counts) and forgery of a check (12 counts). She is scheduled for a Jan. 21, 2016 pretrial conference.

Donahue, who died on Sept. 16 at the age of 88, was suffering from the beginning stages of dementia in May of 2014, so his family hired Mary Bowers of Visiting Angels to help his wife, Nancy, with her husband's care, according to court documents.

But on April 13, Nancy Donahue contacted Lowell police to report that she received a call from Enterprise Bank that a week earlier Bowers allegedly attempted to cash a check for $2,000. Bowers could not cash the check and an internal investigation was begun.

The Donahue family alleges that a dozen checks had been cashed between June 2014 and May 2015 using a signature stamp on each check, according to court documents. The checks appear to have been taken from Donahue's briefcase or from the desk in his Belmont Avenue home, police allege.

When police confronted Bowers she allegedly admitted to cashing four checks for up to $2,000 around Christmas.

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Bowers told police that Donahue told her to write the checks out to herself to help Bowers, whose granddaughter suffers from cystic fibrosis, according to court documents.

As police read off the checks and the amounts, Bowers said a November 2014 check, for example, was for furniture Donahue agreed to buy her. Bowers was visibly upset as she spoke to detectives, who told her she may not think what she did was wrong, but there is a question of whether this is illegal activity.

Four months before his death, Donahue met with police, telling them he felt duped for being nice to Bowers, who has since been terminated from Visiting Angels, according to police.

Donahue told police he felt bad for Bowers and give some extra money for driving him around and $3,000 for a Christmas bonus, but not $22,000.

He denied agreeing to give Bowers money to buy furniture. A family spokesman, son Daniel Donovan, declined to comment.

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